Author William Marsden is one of the finest investigative journalists to ever come out of Canada. But with global climate change now the greatest threat to human life in the history of our planet, Marsden – the award-winning senior investigative reporter for The Gazette whose new book Fools Rule: Inside The failed Politics of Climate Change (Knopf Canada) will give you nightmares – fears he may just have written his last chapter on our survival as a civilization.

“If we don’t have a revolution in our thinking we are f—ked, there is no question about that,” Marsden sighs. “Climate change recognizes just one thing: How much co2 emissions are you putting into the atmosphere. And if you put too much, it tells you how much less you can put up there to reduce climate change in order to save future generations. How much you’re putting up, how much you’re reducing by. That’s the only measure. It’s very simple.”

In Fools Rule Marsden chronicles how inefficient and short-sighted political negotiations have stalled progress on climate change despite irrefutable scientific evidence that immediate action is essential to save our planet. International climate change summits have never been less productive because, Marsden says, treaties and action plans are smothered by economic self-interest, diplomatic errors and every nation’s hungry scramble for its share of the remaining atmospheric space.

“There are 192 nations and each of them brings to the table their vested interests,” Marsden explains. “Canada says, ‘We must protect our oil sands industry.’ Canada’s [current federal] government is dedicated – absolutely dedicated – to doing absolutely nothing. America wants to protect it’s superpower status. China wants to protect its growth. India, ditto. And you tell them, ‘You know what science has to say about all of this?’ And they reply, ‘We don’t care about the science.’ I mean, the Indian environment minster, after the disaster [that was the 2009 climate-change conference in] Copenhagen, returned home and told parliament and the press that it was a great success because they had protected their economic growth! It’s competitive diplomacy. The way [governments] are acting they will never do it [strike a deal].”

Award-winning author and investigative journalist William Marsden

And that’s too bad because, Marsden says, “The key now is to get some kind of agreement. I don’t think you can tackle climate change from the bottom up. I think that’s part of it, yes, but the key thing is an international agreement. We in Canada can say, ‘We’ll do everything in our power to reduce our emissions’ but if China or India keep gushing out emissions, all that is negated. The whole world has to agree on this. We’ve had 20 years to come to terms with this and we have totally failed.”

But wait: it gets worse. Fools Rule also takes us into boardrooms to expose the paralyzing effect oil and gas companies have on green legal initiatives in the United States, and therefore on any international climate change treaty.

“Corporations that rely on fossil fuels for their livelihood have realized that climate change is their end – they know they are finished and they are fighting [it] desperately,” Marsden explains. “They are spending their vast financial resources to make sure the U.S. congress will never pass a climate change treaty. And China knows that. So China thinks, ‘I can’t come to the table and sign this deal because the U.S. congress will never approve it.’ Every country knows that. It’s the huge elephant in the room.”

With so much at stake, what kills Marsden are regular folks like you and me who continue to live in our delusional world. “We are not prepared to sacrifice anything,” he says. “Sometimes I get angry when people – when friends – argue over every bike path out there because now they have to take extra care backing their car out of their driveway. And they still buy these massive SUVs to take their little brats to school when they could walk.”

Marsden also has choice words for today’s youth. “I am appalled at the level of passivity among young people who are more interested in standing in line to purchase the next f—king iPod when they should be out on the streets demanding a revolution because it is these people are going to suffer down the road. You know, at my age, I got maybe 20 more years left. I wish I had more so I could watch all of this play out because I’m a journalist and I want to chronicle the biggest story in the history of humankind.”

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